A rare silver medal from the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 has been sold at auction for about $179,000. The medal was offered by Bruun Rasmussen Arts Auctioneers, a Denmark-based auction house, and dates back roughly 130 years, according to the smithsonianmag.com
Unlike today’s Olympic system, the 1896 Games awarded silver medals to first-place winners. Athletes who finished second received bronze medals, while third-place competitors did not receive any medal.
The medal was designed by French artist Jules-Clément Chaplain. One side displays Zeus holding the goddess of victory, Nike, in his hand, while the reverse side shows the Acropolis in Athens along with the inscription “International Olympic Games-Athens 1896” written in raised Greek letters.
According to the auction house, the piece is “an excellent and beautiful” artifact “of great historical interest.” It weighs about 2.36 ounces-roughly the weight of a large chicken egg—and measures just under two inches in diameter. The medal was also sold together with its original box.
Officials are unsure which athlete originally received the medal, though it may have belonged to Viggo Jensen, Denmark’s first Olympic champion in weightlifting. The identity of the buyer has not been revealed.
“Such medals are exceptionally rare, and for collectors of Olympic memorabilia, this is nothing short of a crown jewel,” says Christian Grundtvig, head of the coins and medals department at the auction house, in a statement.
The ancient Olympic Games began in 776 B.C.E. in Olympia, Greece, and continued every four years until 393 C.E., when Roman emperor Theodosius I banned them for being a pagan celebration.
The modern Olympics returned in 1896 after Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee and helped organize the first Games in Athens.
Source:smithsonianmag.com
